Facsimile images typically are of one of two vertical resolution standards, e.g. 98 lines per inch or 196 lines per inch. In facsimile reception-capable printers and certain more recent facsimile equipment, 300 dots per inch (DPI) vertical resolution is more common. Thus, there is a need to have higher resolution facsimile imaging equipment vertically expand, or scale, the received facsimile image as by filling in between vertically adjacent received dots with print dots to render the printed facsimile image vertically full scale and contiguous, i.e. spatially continuous. When facsimile images are produced, there frequently is a potentially visible pixel or dot artifact called a `tick`, which will be understood to refer to an extraneous black dot in the transmitted image that is added by the imaging equipment above or below horizontal lines within the scanned image. There is a need to reduce the objectionable visibility of such ticks in printed facsimile output images.